Josh Hamilton is back! This guy really changes the way the Rangers lineup looks. I saw the Ranger play in Kansas City a couple weeks ago and both Hamilton and Cruz were hurt and their lineup was not near as scary. Both are back now and Hamilton will try to drive toward another MVP season. He has won one MVP even after being injured a month, why not do it again? He can flat out hit, he is at .339 in a small sampling of games but who know what he can do playing at the Ballpark at Arlington.
I wanted to do something different today so I went with a custom card of Hamilton and one of my Just Fair cards of Hamilton. Ironically both have black borders, not planned I promise. The custom card is not only an old design, it is a football design. This was 1985 Topps’ version of a football set. I posted a bunch of Kansas City Chiefs from this set a while back. I think it is interesting seeing the Rangers in both their blued and red uniforms side by side, they look like completely different teams.
A Hair Off Square 
There have been a few times when I see a football card on checkoutmycards.com and have thought about using it as a baseball card. Very cool that you did it, and did it well. The design reminds me a little of ’94 Triple Play if I remember correctly, which in my opinion was an underrated set. They had a Gallery of Stars insert which was easy to pull and looked as good as any Diamond Kings at the time.
Thanks Dave, right on with the Triple Play reference, we will have to work some of those in soon. They were a good looking card, especially that year, and the best part…CHEAP. You are also right about the Gallery of Stars insert set, obviously lifted from the Diamond Kings but done very well.
Wow, I was just turned on to your blog by csd. Fantastic stuff…love the ’85 Topps football design, and Dave is right it works well for baseball (or any other sport really). But what really blew me away were your original designs, especially the major league debut cards. They are spectacular. I’ll be watching your blog, love your stuff.
Thanks JT, csd and my site have had some good cross-promotion I think. I appreciate your kind words. The major league debut cards are a favorite of mine as well.
Love the 85 football replica cards. I’m working on the same concept. Can you tell me what fonts you used for the four text pieces (Topps, Last Name, First Name, and Team name)? I think I’ve got something close, except for the team font… I’m really struggling with it.
Any help would be appreciated. If you’re interested, my website is: http://djsautosandcards.weebly.com
Thanks!
Your site looks good. I like the signatures on custom cards, how much more unique can you get right? You’ve got some really nice designs. I love how every custom card designer has their own niche. As for the 85 Topps; believe it or not it is just Arial. I used Arial Bold on the team and first name and Arial Black on the last name. I know it isn’t right though, if memory serves the “R” is wrong. I have found in doing custom card “tributes” it is really hard to font match and I use a lot or Arial on Topps cards. For me it isn’t so much getting the right font as getting something that is similar enough to look right.
I don’t know how you make your custom cards but I’d be more than happy to send you my template for anything you would like to see.
Thanks. It’s turned into an obsession of mine in the past few years. I usually don’t copy past designs from card companies, but I had a former player who didn’t have very many cards approach me and ask if I could make a few for him and I love the 85 Football set. I found a couple of older Topps styles that I used, too, but they are mostly baseball designs (1971, 1974, 1985, 2008, 2011 Bowman Chrome). They turned out good, though.
I’d love to see the template. I use Photoshop CS5. So as long as it’s a photoshop template, I should be ok.
Once I get my old ones done for the player, I’ll post them on my site and let you know.
Thanks!
Dave
email; djauwerda at gmail dot com